Richard Serra My Curves Are Not Mad Teacher’s Introduction About this resource This classroom resource is designed to connect Art 1 level students with primary source texts that offer opportunities for critical thinking and interdisciplinary connections with works in the Nasher collection. We suggest you invite students to first read the text and then discuss what they read in Richard Serra, My Curves Are pairs or small groups before completing the interactive component. The Not Mad, 1987. Cor-Ten Steel, Overall: 168 x 539 3/8 x 139 in. information on this page is provided to offer teachers a broader context to Each plate: 168 x 539 3/8 x 2 guide student discussion. The following pages may be printed and given in. Raymond and Patsy Nasher directly to students. Collection, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas. My Curves Are Not Mad Serra's monumental works emphasize concepts fundamental to sculpture: mass and form, material and process, site and context. My Curves Are Not Mad is an overwhelming physical presence: each plate is forty-four feet long, fourteen feet tall, and weighs over fifty thousand pounds. Its curves seem to lean precariously and carve out unexpected shifts in volume and depth, making the experience of walking between the plates a bit unsettling. The warm, reddish-brown tone and soft texture of the weathered Cor-Ten steel make the work as visually stunning as it is physically imposing. At such a large scale, the sculpture defines space and transforms its surroundings. A particular irony results from the installation here: the natural forms of the garden are quite orderly in their rectilinear arrangement, while the hard, industrial material of the sculpture curves organically. Serra’s choice of materials is informed by his experience working in a steel mill while studying art at Yale. His determination of scale, one that manipulates the viewer’s sense of place and position in the world, points to his interest in the subjective corporeal and visual experience that his sculptures elicit. To him, this is the content of the work; the physical form serves as a tool that activates experience. Additional Resources Richard Serra Biography http://www.art21.org/artists/richard-serra Coagula Magazine Interviewhttp://www.coagula.com/serra.html Extended Art 21 episode: http://www.art21.org/videos/segment-richard-serra-in-place BOMB Magazine Interview http://bombmagazine.org/article/1605/richard-serra Charlie Rose Interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEvklGKd6uE Suggested Curriculum Connections (TEKS) Fine Arts: Foundations, Critical Evaluation | §117.52. Art, Level I (c) (1) and (4) English: Reading Comprehension of Literary Nonfiction | §110.31. English I (b) (6) English: Vocabulary Development | §110.31. English I (b) (1) Learn More at the Nasher You can learn more about My Curves Are Not Mad and see what’s currently on view by visiting the “Art” section of the Nasher website. Discover more resources and lessons in the “Learn” section, or book a guided or self-guided tour in the “Visit” section. www.nashersculpturecenter.org Richard Serra, My Curves Are Not Mad Read Richard Serra on the qualities of steel as a material for sculpture. “I started as a painter and I started using rubber and lead and a lot of other things and when I finally picked up a piece of the steel, I realized that the way steel had been used in the Industrial Revolution, the way it had been used for making bridges or silos or whatever, hadn't been used in sculpture. Because the way steel had been used in sculpture was mostly like handmade into painting, they would cut it out and paste it together and it would be very pictorially arranged. I decided to use it in a way that it had been used and intended to be used for its building potential because I'd worked around it as a kid. I've thrown buildings together, there is a building in San Francisco that I stuck all the rivets on.” “I can pick up a piece of steel two inches thick, 8 by 8 plate, no one had done that before. I mean the idea of using the weight of the material no one had done. The idea of using the stasis of the material, the idea of using the flexibility of the material, no one had really investigated the properties of the material. Or how you could use it in ways that were in the building industry. And I just decided to take it on that way. Because I knew about it.” Excerpted from: Mark Simmons. "Richard Serra: The Coagula Interview." Coagula Contemporary Art Magazine. Watch Richard Serra, Place on PBS Art21: http://www.art21.org/videos/segment-richard-serra-in- place Discuss Look at the image of My Curves Are Not Mad. Then close your eyes and imagine walking around and through the sculpture. Describe what you see and how the work makes you feel. Based on the reading and the video, what did you learn about Richard Serra’s work that surprised you? What did you learn about the artist’s choice of materials (steel) and his process of installation? Richard Serra, My Curves Are Not Mad, 1987. Cor-Ten Steel, Overall: 168 x 539 3/8 x 139 in. Each plate: 168 x 539 3/8 x 2 in. Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas. Richard Serra, My Curves Are Not Mad Write Early in his career, Serra made a list of action words related to his physical movements in the studio. Think about an artwork you’ve made or a recent project you’ve completed. Make a list of ten verbs that relate to the making of that work. Use Serra’s Verb List as a point of reference. to roll to curve to scatter to modulate My Verbs: to crease to lift to arrange to distill to fold to inlay to repair of waves ___________________________ to store to impress to discard of electromagnetic to bend to fire to pair of inertia ___________________________ to shorten to flood to distribute of ionization to twist to smear to surfeit of polarization to dapple to rotate to compliment of refraction ___________________________ to crumple to swirl to enclose of tides to shave to support to surround of reflection ___________________________ to tear to hook to encircle of equilibrium to chip to suspend to hole of symmetry ___________________________ to split to spread to cover of friction to cut to hang to wrap to stretch ___________________________ to sever to collect to dig to bounce to drop of tension to tie to erase ___________________________ to remove of gravity to bind to spray to simplify of entropy to weave to systematize to differ of nature to join to refer ___________________________ to disarrange of grouping to match to force to open of layering to laminate of mapping ___________________________ to mix of felting to bond of location to splash to grasp to hinge of context ___________________________ to knot to tighten to mark of time to spill to bundle to expand of carbonization to droop to heap to dilute to continue to flow to gather to light Richard Serra, Verb List, 1967-68. Original handwritten version (top) and typewritten version (bottom). .